Meditations for Entrepreneurs #23: The Real Action Is Inside Us

My continuing series: quoting great thinkers who inspire me, then offering commentary on how it connects with the entrepreneurial game. I hope these meditations will help other entrepreneurs play the bigger game. 

“We have been to the moon, we have charted the depths of the ocean and the heart of the atom, but we have a fear of looking inward to ourselves because we sense that is where all the contradictions flow together.” — Terence McKenna

At it’s core, the entrepreneur’s journey is one of personal transformation.

On the surface, the entrepreneur is taking on great, ambitious things. Whether it’s working to solve huge intractable problems, or fixing small problems at a vast scale, the visionary entrepreneur undertakes tremendous effort to the limits of their capabilities in the quest to achieve amazing things. 

Yet, in my experience, no matter how small or big the enterprise, the real action is in the interior. We all have a core story that we’ve picked up along the way. It’s that voice in our heads that provides commentary on events - and on ourselves. 

It’s the voice that tells us we aren’t enough. We aren’t good enough. That we shouldn’t be here. That we are imposters. That the world is full of scarcity. 

The voice of our core stories have been with us a long time. It sounds believable, and it has helped us in the past, so we accept it, and operate from there. 

It’s the entrepreneur’s core story that’s actually running the show. And it gets expressed through the company.

I've seen cash flow problems emanate from always pushing the envelope because of feelings of never being enough. I've seen marketing problems grow out of fear of being seen.

The interior inevitably finds it's way out to the surface.

At some point, we bump up against the limits of our core stories. And we have to confront ourselves. What we believe about us. How we think the world sees us. How we find ways to cling to our limitations because that’s our comfort zone. 

Then we need to confront ourselves. All of our inner contradictions and peccadillos are fair game. It’s uncomfortable and often scary. 

The only way to get past is to go straight through.

Each time we do this, we transform into our next evolution. And inevitably our businesses transform with us.